Monday, March 30, 2009

The Start of Outdoor




The indoor season came to a spectacular conclusion with multiple awards, PR's, and records. At the conference meet, sophmore Jeramie Parker was named distance runner of the meet after setting a new conference record and qualifying for nationals in the mile. Sophmore Beth Muller was named sprinter of the meet for pulling off a phenomenal triple, in which she won the 55m, 200m, and 400m, while setting new school records in the 55m and 200m. The next weekend, 5 members of the men's team travelled to Rose-Hulman for the national championships. Tony Dipre and Joe McMahon earned All-American awards in the mile and the triple jump respectively.

The national championships also marked the start of spring break for Allegheny College. This year, the track and field team went to San Diego for break. The week consisted of normal practices, but the team also spent time visiting famous locations like the Gaslamp district, the San Diego Zoo, and Old Town. At the end of the week, the athletes competed at Point Loma Nazarene. Despite a week of sunburns, lots of Yogurtland trips, and adjusting to the time zone change, the men and women posted some great early season performances. Fresh off her conference championship in the shot put, Lauren Butler qualified for nationals in javelin. Lauren also finished second in the shot, with the top throw in the conference. Becca Lendyak finished second in the 100m, posting a conference leading time. Sam Zink and Katie Stancik qualified for the conference championships in the mile, while Claire LeMasters qualified in the steeplechase. Mia Symoniak won the 5k, with Rachel Hutchinson finishing in third. In the triple jump, Emily Norton jumped a new PR to place second and qualify for the conference meet.

On the men's side, Josh Brannan had an impressive day in only his third meet of the year. Josh was second in the 100m with a time of 11.12 and first in the 200m, running 22.33. Both performances lead the conference currently. He also qualfied for the conference meet in the javelin, along with decathlete Pete Sotherland and thrower Shane Hennessy. The 5k men were dominant, as always, with Jakeb Zimmerman, Zac Ross , Pat McLaughlin, and Ryan Sullivan all finishing in the top 8 in the field and qualifying for the conference meet. Senior distance runner Chris Corkins qualfied for the conference meet in his first steeple in five years. With little time to recover from nationals, Joe McMahon won the triple jump, landing just short of the outdoor track national standard.